SPEAKER: BARBARA CASSANI

Barbara Cassani took up her appointment as Chief Executive of Go, in May 1997 to develop a business plan and gain approval from the British Airways Board for the new airline. She left Go in 2002.

Go started flying out of Stansted airport and now flies to Bilbao, Bologna, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Faro, Lisbon, Madrid, Malaga, Milan, Munich, Rome and Venice.

Barbara Cassani is most well-known as the founder and Chief Executive of the low cost airline Go which began flying in 1998 with £25m of capital and became profitable in less than three years. After initially operating as a subsidiary company of BA, Ms Cassani led a management buyout of Go in 2001 for £110 million. Go was sold to easyJet in 2002 for £374m, the same year that Barbara Cassani won the Veuve Clicquot UK businesswoman of the year award. She then co-authored a book about the Go story with Kenny Kemp called Go – An Airline Adventure, which won the People’s Choice Book Award from WH Smith in 2004.

Ms Cassani worked at British Airways for ten years, first as an internal strategic consultant in Marketing and moved on to a series of sales, marketing and general management positions in the UK before being appointed General Manager, USA. She began her business career as a management consultant with Coopers and Lybrand in Washington DC, before moving to London.

Barbara Cassani currently volunteers as a Vice Chairman of the bid to bring the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympics to London. As Chairman until May this year, she successfully led the process that saw London accepted as an official candidate city for the final stage of the bidding process.

Ms Cassani graduated magna cum laude in International Relations from Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, before completing a Masters degree in Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Barbara Cassani has lived in London for 14 years. She is married to Guy Davis and they have two children. She is a keen equestrian, competing at lower levels herself and owning top level three day eventing horses.